A Guide For Potential Staff!
by InterestingIndeed
Summary: Trying to get staff on a server? Take some advice from someone who's been staffing for 4 years! I will share my years of knowledge with the world on how to be a great staff member and a great player too! Here I will explore staff applications, people skills, what servers are looking for, and some of our staff pet peeves as well.
1. Chapter 1

Trying to get staff on a server? Take some advice from someone who's been staffing for 4 years! I will share my years of knowledge with the world on how to be a great staff member and a great player too! Here I will explore staff applications, people skills, what servers are looking for, and some of our staff pet peeves as well. I will span all of this out over a few chapters so stick with me!

Chapter One: Staff Applications

Lots of servers use the Minecraft forums to recruit staff through applications. These are quicker than waiting for mature players to show up on your server, but dangerous because you never know who is really applying. Applications are designed to separate the griefers, the power abusers, and immature players from the true staff material. Applicants serve as a filter, kind of like an anti-virus system on your computer, except this is for staff members on a server!

Now let's talk questions! Here is a basic example of an online application:

IGN: In Game Name, your username! I had to ask what it was so don't feel bad if you didn't know!

Age: Your age, but only if you feel comfortable giving it out on most applications. Please don't lie about your age, we almost always know when someone does and it never looks good, trust me. If you don't feel comfortable giving your age you can always say that you are uncomfortable giving out your age. Most of us are TOTALLY cool with that!

Previous Experience: A biggie for sure, previous experience helps indicate who knows what they're doing, and who just got Minecraft yesterday. However, that does not mean if you've never been staff before, you can't ever become staff! If don't have any previous experience please tell us. There's no shame in being new! We tend to lean towards honest people, and again, if you're dishonest we can tell.

What Rank you're applying for: Just list the rank you want, really you can't go wrong with this. My only piece of advice is that the higher you go on the staff hierarchy the harder it is to get a job. If it's you're first time staffing go for a helper or moderator rank. Please don't go straight for co-owner.

Why Do You Want To Be Staff?: I hate this question, and still do. It's pretty hard to think of something that doesn't sound fake or make you sound like a kiss butt. 'I like helping people' really doesn't cover it. My suggestion is state why you like helping people? How can you help people? What will you bring to the table as a staff member? That stuff really let's your personality shine through to us and it doesn't sound fake, mostly.

Biggest/Weakest asset: Yessire, this is the question we catch a lot of potential power abusers on. By putting 'Nothing' for weakest asset you're telling us that you believe yourself to be perfect and that your ego is the size of Mount Everest and that is one key trait of a power abuser. So please, be honest. Are you shy? Put that! Being shy may interfere with your ability to confront or interact with players and guess what, there's nothing wrong with that! By telling us you're shy you're letting us know your limits and where you are comfortable. Plus over time you might overcome your shyness! As for best asset do not write an essay on how amazing you are, it's just like saying you have no faults. Pick one trait and go with it. Are you responsible? Awesome! That's a great trait to have! Again lying is made pretty obvious by how you fill out the application and how you perform as a staff member.

Have you ever been banned/why?: BE HONEST!

Other things like time zones and availability are kind of no brainers but I cannot stress enough how HONEST YOU HAVE TO BE!

What sticks out to us in an application? Your grammar and spelling. When u talk liek ur 2 and stff we rlly cant take u srsly. Txt speak is n instnt turnoff. U srsly sound immature an stff. When you capitalize the first words of sentences, spell correctly, and actually use vowels and real words for that matter we sit up and go 'Hey, this person knows what they're doing!' What is the lesson to be learned? Type like you have an A in English class! The first thing we think of when we see your application looking like that is 'this person is immature.' We want people who can communicate, minus the text speak.

What else sticks out to us? Your skills. If there is an extra section-and usually there is- please tell us some of your Minecraft skills. Are you a good builder? Tell us. Are you good with redstone? Tell us. Can you code? Tell us. We love it when people who want staff can double as a builder, coder, or can just make some cool redstone stuff.

What else sticks out to us? You in general. Those best/weakest assets questions? They're designed to get you to reflect your personality. We really don't want to hire a person with 0 personality, so be proud, but not to proud!

HOMEWORK: Go into MC Forums and look at some staff applications. You can find them in the 'Looking For' section of the 'Server' section. Read some submitted apps and silently determine who you think would, and wouldn't be a great staff member based on their application.

InterestingIndeed has been playing Minecraft since Easter of 2009, in other words, before it was cool. She hijacked her brother's account and played on single player until Feburary 14th of 2010 when her parent's relented and got she her own Minecraft account. Interesting played on single player until she was introduced to her first server that summer. Over time she got staff and has been staffing servers in various positions for about 4 years. She currently co-owns a server and is working as Head of Social Interaction.

Feel free to message her with any questions or leave them in the review section below.

Next Chapter: Staff insider tips


	2. Chapter 2

I got a message from HeroSeekrFrost who used my technique and landed a job as helper for a server! Congratulations!

Believe it or not staff members are people too. Somewhere in the world there is a person sitting behind a screen and that means they have feelings too. In my time as both a staff member and a player I've picked up some tips on how NOT act, especially if you want to be staff.

Tip 1: Don't ask us for staff

Why? Because if you do we won't give it to you, especially if all you do is ask us about it. That really get's on our nerves. It's like having an annoying 'friend' asking you for something that they don't deserve. Please either step up your game on your participation on our server or stop asking. Seriously, it's annoying.

Tip 2: Don't ask for stuff either

Ever. If you're dying of food ask out to the general public 'Does anyone have some food they'd be willing to give me?' Staff is very busy making sure you don't get griefed and also people come to us with their real life problems too. However, by asking to the public you might get more responses and sometimes a staff member might help you if they can. My policy is to at least answer with a 'I'm sorry, but I can't help you, but List suggestion here' Normally if I can't another player can. This isn't always the case but by asking to the public you're more than likely to get a response and not anger staff.

Tip 3: Don't try and do our job for us

I've had players literally try and take over my job for me. By chastising other players "Please don't ask for staff, it's really annoying," Telling us what to install next "You should install enter stupid plugin here" By telling us what to do "Open up the plot world," you are not making any friends. A guy on our server does this all the time.

Now I know some of this seems harsh so let me clarify what doing our job for us means. Chastising other players is a bendable one. If you caught some guy in your house and you're telling him he's not supposed to be there that's different. Sitting there, not actually playing, just looking for ways to tell players off to look good for a server is not cool. We're more likely to hate you. We won't ban you or anything but you probably won't get staff. We look for mature players, not attention seeking power abusers and yes, there is a trend between people who try to do our job and those who power abuse.

Tip 4: We're looking for maturity

Maturity is a grasp most job seekers fail to understand. There's quite a bit more to be staff than banning the occasional griefer. As I said before, lot's of players come to us with their real life problems. Sometimes we're practically a therapist for our players and to hand out the correct advice does take maturity.

Maturity by definition is 'The state or fact of being mature.' Does this mean we're uptight and no fun? No! Are you joking? I work on a server with a rainbow themed world- that I manage- every day. When I enter it says that I 'ride in elegantly on a rainbow sparkly toaster on a rainbow as majestic music plays in the background.' I have INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY. I build lollipop forests for fun. I tell jokes to the players. I talk to them as friends. I am planning a server amusement park. I'd say I can be a pretty fun staff member. However, being mature means knowing the fine line between having fun and being immature, and that's when people tend to screw up, BIG TIME. Spawning 457893 sheep all named jeb_ so they turn rainbow colors and lag up the server? That was not funny after jeb_ number 67. Having a snowball fight? That's cool. Having a tnt fight? That's so not cool.

So how do we look for maturity? Believe it or not we pay strict attention to what you guys say and do. We make a note of who's mature and who's not so mature. How you talk to other players is a biggie. Do you act arrogant and pompous? Do you think you're better than everyone else because you played Minecraft in 2012? Well guess what, I've been playing since 2010. HA. If you come across as arrogant we label you as a power abuser and most of the time we are correct. If you talk like your 2 we label you as immature. If you tend to get into arguments a lot, we push you to the back. If you look for compromises and solutions for problems we mark you down for observation. So the next time you see 2 people fighting suggest a compromise, it could get you noticed.

Tip 5: We like leadership

Have a great idea for a server? (A shop, a new spawn, a town,) Get a group of 2 or more other players who agree with you and would be willing to help. Then pitch your idea to a staff member and ask if it would be ok. Don't just say "You should really make a server shop," And do nothing else to get a server shop. Even if you give reasons why we're busy people, often times we barely have time to answer regular questions without building a shop. Instead say this: "Would it be okay if we made a server shop? Or do you guys already have one?" Then start building it. It looks really good if you do it all in survival, that shows commitment. Remember, don't just take charge and boss everyone around and do nothing yourself, split all the work up evenly. Maybe you could have one guy do the lower level, another do the upper, and a third go and grab materials, then switch jobs or something like that. That show's leadership and maturity.

Tip 6: Take a hint

Listen to what we say the first time. If you ask if you can help us build something and we say 'I'm good right now but tanks!' That's your cue to move along. If you continue to pester us we get annoyed and continue being polite until you go overboard. So for the sake of our sanity, take a hint!

Tip 7: Don't over message your welcome

Because I totally want to solve all your friendship problems. No seriously, it sucks. I am always open to talk about it but there comes a point where you need to get a grip. After message number 100 and I start resorting to 'Mhm' and 'Is that so?' that means this is getting old. As I stated before I'm always open but if you run to me every time your friend calls you a moron I am going to label you as needy.

Tip 8: Being friends with us will get you no where

Some people have the delusion that if you're friends with a staff member you will be staff. WRONGO. Friendship won't get you a rank. Sure, we enjoy your company, but the minute you start asking us for stuff we back off. That doesn't mean you can't be friends with us, it just means we won't get you any favors. Actually being friends with us, especially in real life, means we have more knowledge of you. I have a friend who tries to leech off my rank but I've made sure every staff member knows he is arrogant and rude so really he has little to no chance.

Tip 9: Rallying the players up against us is not cute

I've had people try to get players to rebel against staff and make him co-owner. Not cute. His reasoning was that staff has too much power and the players can't do anything. I had to remind him our players elect staff to an extent. Whenever we find a possible staff member we ask around about him/her and get opinions and make a decisions off those opinions. You guys do mean a lot to us and we do try to make sure we aren't making a wrong decision. We've had staff members de-ranked because of player responses. It takes a lot of votes but it has, and can be, done.

Tip 10: We're responsible for your upbringing

Never thought about it much have you? Being staff means you're looking out for the well being of the server and it's players. Since most Minecrafters are under the age of 18 we are almost a surrogate parent. We make sure what is on the server is age appropriate and we make sure we provide a safe environment to have fun. We also make sure you guys are alright. Have you ever gotten a message from a staff member asking if you're okay? It's because we're legitimately worried about you. Believe it or not we get attached to you guys. Our players are like our family. A super weird extended digital family but still family. I've given suicide counseling before to a player who told me they were thinking about it. Seriously, we love you guys. And if you remember to wish us a happy birthday, or merry Christmas we appreciate that. Just say thank you every now and then. It means so much to us!


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